NZ prime minister 'unidentified guest'

Spare a thought for New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, or as he is known in the rest of the world, the "unidentified guest".

Domestically, polls show he's been a popular leader.

But during each of his big moments on the international stage, he seems to attract another small insult that feeds into a wider anxiety among New Zealanders that their country just isn't much noticed or taken seriously.

The latest incident came this week when Key was photographed by the European Pressphoto Agency joking with his British counterpart at Nelson Mandela's funeral.

A small insult to be sure, but one that received plenty of media attention in this South Pacific nation of 4.5 million, especially after the photo ran on the New York Daily News website. The caption has since been updated.

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In 2011, Key was jubilant after President Barack Obama agreed to meet him in the Oval Office. At the subsequent press conference, however, Obama repeatedly referred to him as "Prime Minister Keyes".

Perhaps the worst part was that nobody seemed to notice.

When he visited the Queen this year, the Daily Mail newspaper described "Kay" as a "galloping colonial clot" for breaking royal protocol by discussing his visit and releasing a photo of himself in the queen's private sitting room.

Never mind that it wasn't Key, but a reporter who had taken and distributed the picture.

Then there was Key's goofy 2009 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, during which Key read out the top 10 reasons to visit New Zealand.

Letterman asked the prime minister whether the nation was near Tasmania, how many years the plane ride had taken, and whether New Zealand got mail.

"Why is he out here, Paul?" Letterman asked his band leader, Paul Shaffer.

Perhaps part of the problem for New Zealanders is that their country usually functions well enough not to receive the negative attention that keeps other nations in the media spotlight.

Corruption, crime and unemployment are all low compared with other countries. Life, for the most part, is pretty good - if a little quiet.

Director Peter Jackson, for one, has done his part to keep New Zealand in the international consciousness with his five films - and counting - about the fictional hobbits, elves and dragons that inhabit Middle-earth.

But New Zealanders' existential worry about their place in the world runs deep.

The NZ comedy duo Flight of the Conchords regularly tapped into this feeling. In one episode of their former HBO television series, a fruit vendor insults them after mistaking them for Australians.